Okay, sorry about the wait. Thanks to everyone who reviewed.

Chapter 6

Mack looked down at her paper and smiled. It was a story for Ms. Darbus, so that she could 'see their individual strengths and learn whose handwriting was whose'. The story had to be written by hand and it had to be fiction.

"What are you doing?"

She jumped in her chair and turned around to look at the voice. "Troy, don't do that! You scared me half to death. I thought I was alone in the house."

"Not anymore," he said sitting beside her. "What's that?"

"Do you remember as a freshmen having to write a story for Darbus so she can see your strengths?"

"Yeah, is that it?"

Mack nodded and picked it up. "Nine pages, handwritten."

"Can I read it?"

She looked at it, trying to decide if she would let him read it. "I don't know..."

"Oh, come on. It can't be that bad coming from you, you're the good writer." Troy grabbed the paper and started to read. "One Last Smile, I'm interested already."

"Troy..."

"Oh, come on."

'I'm afraid he won't make it through the night.' John tightened his grip on his daughter. Had he heard the doctor right? His seventeen-year-old son wasn't going to live to see daylight again.

'Isn't there something you can do,' he asked hopefully. The doctor shook his head, 'we've done all we can. If he makes it to tomorrow, he's chances of survival will increase. At the moment...you should say your last goodbyes.'

John looked at his daughter, tears slowly streaming down her pale face. 'Should we go in Daddy,' she asked. He sighed and nodded, opening the door. The room was filled with loud beeping noises and intimidating machines.

'Hey Dad,' came the hoarse voice of his son. His bright blue eyes had become dull and his perfect light brown hair was dirty with blood and small pieces of tar. John cringed at the sight of his pained expression. 'They said they hooked me up to pain meds, guess not.'

'Shh. You don't need to talk right now. You need to fight.'

'Did you call mom?'

'No,' John said, staring at the cuts that had been stitched up on the boy's face. 'She's on a plane, I can't reach her now.'

'Oh,' he said as he closed his eyes for a brief moment. When he opened them, they landed on his little sister. 'Hey you,' he forced out.

'Hi,' she said quickly.

'Come on, I don't bite.'

She inched over to him from her place at the door very slowly. Some of the machines were bigger than she was, making her frightened. 'How are you,' he asked. 'What did you do today?'

'Same ole, same ole. Just like I always do. Do you hurt,' the little girl asked. Her brother looked at her, trying to gage whether to tell her about his pain. He decided against telling the seven-year-old that he was in pain. 'No, not anymore.'

'Good, we wouldn't want you leaving in pain.'

'Yeah, we wouldn't want that. Tell me, Mae, what do you think heaven's like?'

She sighed and said, 'it's beautiful and you'll like it. There will be lots of angels to keep you company, that way you wont get bored.'

John noticed that his son's breathing was becoming labored. 'Mae, will you tell Mom I'll miss her.'

'You can't leave yet,' the girl cried. 'Mommy has to say goodbye!'

'Mommy can say goodbye anytime she wants. I'll always be listening.'

Mae bit her bottom lip. 'But, I don't want you to leave.'

'I won't really be leaving Mae. When you hear the wind, that's me laughing. When it rains, I'm crying, happy or sad. When it's sunny, I'm smiling and when it's cloudy, I miss you more than ever.' The boy could barely talk for his breathing was ragged.

The boy turned his head slowly. 'Will you tell her Dad, tell her I love her?'

John nodded his head, knowing he meant his girlfriend Ella when he said 'her.' The boy could barely keep his eyes open and the sight of him brought tears to John's eyes. After a few moments of silence, the boy smiled one last time before his eyes closed and the loud beeping noise was replaced with a long, heart wrenching sound.

'Is he...'

'Yes Mae, Troy's gone.'

"Troy! You named the dead guy Troy!"

"I can name my characters what ever I want."

"Yeah," Troy said uncomfortably. "But Troy died."

Mack just shrugged. "You didn't even finish the story."

"Well, now that I'm dead...the story doesn't really have a purpose."

"Troy that's not fair! So I picked your name-"

"Wait a minute," Troy said looking over the names. "Ella...that could be short for Gabriella. John and Jack are almost the same. The mom's on a plane, out of town. Mack...Mae...these aren't coincidences."

"So what if they're not?"

"I thought you were supposed to write a fictional piece."

"I did, you're not dead are you? This hasn't happened...yet."

"What's that supposed to mean. You want me to die in a car crash? That's how Troy died right?"

"That's not what I meant," Mack stuttered.

"Are you sure Mack?"

"Troy!"

"Troy, Mack, what's going on in here?" Both kids looked at the doorway to see Jack.

"I'll tell you what's going on, she killed me off!"

"I did not! I just used his name for the kid who died," she defended.

"You could have used a different name," Troy yelled at her.

"Why are you getting so touchy about this?"

"Because Chad thinks- nothing. I don't know. I'm tired, that's it. I'm going upstairs." Troy sprinted up the stairs and around the corner. He leaned up against the wall and felt his pulse, it was racing. He was dizzy and was having a hard time finding his breath. "What is happening to me? Maybe Chad was right...if I'm not better by basketball, I'll go to a doctor." He took a deep breath. "Just take it easy Troy, you're just stressed for some reason. It will pass, I know it will."

hsmhsmhsmhsmhsm

"Chad, you can't do your work if you're not focused."

"How can I focus with such a pretty girl sitting right in front of me?"

Taylor rolled her eyes, but smiled all the same. "Do I need to leave?"

"No! I don't get any of this."

She sighed and started to explain a math problem to him. After a while, she looked up and saw him looking down at the floor. "Chad? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said looking up at her. Taylor gave him a look. "Fine! Troy and I got into a fight yesterday. He is so mad at me right now."

"What did you do?"

"I yelled at him because he's being stupid."

"What are you talking about?"

"He's just...he knows somethings wrong, but he wont get help."

"So you want him to get help," Taylor concluded.

"Yes!"

"Then why don't you just tell his dad?"

Chad looked down at the floor again. "I promised I wouldn't. I don't want to ruin our friendship anymore by going against his wishes. I don't know what to do."

"Well, you could try to think about what Troy would do in this situation."

Chad thought for a minute before saying, "he'd probably convince me to tell my parents."

"Does that help?"

"Yeah, but lets work on this homework a little more okay."

Taylor frowned, something had to really be wrong to get Chad to want to work on his homework rather than talk to her. "Okay, we're on problem fifteen."

hsmhsmhsmhsmhsm

"Mack...Mack..."

"Here let me try. MACKENZIE LORRAINE!"

"What," Mack said opening her eyes. "Movie over already?"

"I'm surprised you knew we were at a movie, you didn't watch any of it," Keisha said.

"Yeah, the first half you and Calum couldn't keep your hands off each other," Adam told her. "Then, you fell asleep on him."

"What can I say? Movies bore me."

"You can say that again," Teagan said laughing. "Let's go."

Mack smiled and lifted herself off Calum. He grabbed her hand and they started walking to the lobby. "Where's Mikaela?"

"She left, her mom was here to pick her up. She offered us a ride, but being the good friends we are we decided to say and wake you up," Keisha said.

"Didn't you sleep last night," Adam asked.

"No."

"Your mom was supposed to come back last night, she did right?"

Mack rolled her eyes. "Yes Bailey, my mother came back. Actually, I spent the night in her room. We watched television with the volume turned up super high."

"Why did it have to be up so loud," Calum asked.

"My brother and my father were fighting, again. I think it was about college but you couldn't really tell. I heard Gabriella a couple of times and UCLA was mentioned along with Florida, UCONN and Boston College, amongst others."

"Why are they fighting about college," Teagan asked.

"Because Troy wants to go where Gabriella goes and if Gabriella doesn't go to a 'basketball school' Dad's going to go through the roof. So they started yelling at each other and then Dad goes 'why can't you be more like Chad? He's dedicated.' And Troy goes, 'I don't need this' and storms out. Then Dad's all, 'you come back here!' and Mom's in hissy fit upstairs because Dad's yelling at Troy, and my shows ruined because I couldn't turn the volume up any higher."

"Wow," Adam said.

"Oh and that's not the end of it. Troy didn't come home last night so both Mom and Dad are seated by the phone. That's why they picked it up halfway through the first ring and we had to talk fast when you called earlier, Calum."

"That explains a lot."

"Hey Mack," Bailey called as she walked to her mother's car. "You want a ride?"

"No thanks. I'm going to walk."

"Are you crazy, it's dark outside," Keisha said. Mack nodded and the girls laughed.

Calum looked over his shoulder. "Hey guys, I'm going to walk too."

"Calum, you two are crazy. It's a long walk."

"Yeah, well, the longer I'm away from my house, the better," Mack told them. The two boys walked toward the parking lot, leaving Mack and Calum standing alone. "So," she asked. "Why did you stay with me? You could have gotten a ride."

"I didn't want you walking back by yourself."

"Very thoughtful."

Calum smiled and started to walk. He dug his hands into his pockets. "So you really don't want to go back to your house."

"Not really. I can't stand it when they fight."

"Your brother and your dad?"

Mack nodded. "Sometimes I wish my family was normal."

"It is."

"Yeah, sure it is. My mom's never home and when she is, something like this happens. My dad's a science teacher and the varsity coach, who could have gone to Duke, but went and ruined it. My brother is a basketball star with a heart problem and I'm the shadow."

"My family's not much better. My mom works double shifts because she can't face the fact that she let me and Cam get abused. My dad ran off after getting charged with child abuse, then came back to try and kill us, all because of some stupid basketball argument. My brother is the bad boy gone good and I'm...I don't even know what I am."

"Life's thrown us some rotten lemons," Mack said, sitting on the grass of a park.

"Yeah," Calum said sitting beside her.

"How can you be so happy all the time?"

Calum gave her a look. "I'm not happy all the time."

"When ever I see you you seem happy, and it makes me feel happy."

"Glad I could be of service."

She smiled. "Should we go?"

"Yeah, I still have a paper to do."

"Calum Boucher! Waiting for last minute to do his homework! Naughty boy!" They both laughed and started to walk. When they got to the point where Calum took a right and she went straight, he kissed her on the cheek and waved goodbye.

She sighed. "Why can't life be like fairy tales?"

Hope you liked it. Tell me what you think. Also, thanks to those who have given me ideas...you'll probably see some of them, since I thought they were good.

Review!